In the early 1890s, inventors on both side of the Atlantic were on the brink of showing the first moving photographs. Still photography was well established, but the challenge was to invent a machine that would take and show a succession of photographic frames.

Thomas Edison began his research into motion pictures as the complement to his already successful “Phonograph”. He applied for patents for both his “Kinetograph” camera and his “Kinetoscope” peep show machine in 1891, but curiously, was content with this. The credit of putting on the first movie show went to two French brothers, Louis and Auguste Lumiere. Their machine, the “Cinematograph”‘, was used to show 20 brief films to an audience in the Grand Cafe, Paris, on December 28,1895.

Although a vigourous film industry grew up in many European countries, it was America that took the lead in popular film making, which it has never really relinquished. The Californian sunshine was ideal for shooting outdoors on location and Hollywood became a magnet for people hoping to get into the movies. The first 30 years of theTwentieth Century saw the growth of the “Silent Movies” from around 1905 until the early 1930s. The United States issued a block of 10 stamps in 1994 (Scott 2819-2928) that included many of the well known stars of the ‘silent era’ such as Rudolph Valentine, Clara Bow, Zasu Pitts and Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was introduced to movies first in 1913 and was world famous for the creation of the “little tramp in baggy trousers and bowler hat” that delighted audiences in a succession of one-reelers. Chaplin has been depicted on many world philatelic items eg. Czechoslovakia 1968, Scott 1588 and 1989, Scott 2734; Grenada 1990, Scott 1795; India 1978, Scott 797; Great Britain 1985, Scott 1121 and the Japanese Echo card featured in Figure 1 below.

Australia was also producing silent films in the early 20th century. Lottie Lyell was more than an appealing film actress, she was also a movie director. With her partner producerldirector Raymond Longford they made many silent films together. Their work was commemorated by Australia in 1989 (Scott 1149) as illustrated below in Figure 2.

The film industry was thrown into confusion by the arrival of sound when Al Jolson sang and spoke a few lines m the “Jazz Sipger”, a movie released by Wamer Bros in 1927. The movie was an immediate hit. Al Jolson is featured on Redonda 1966 (Scott 8604) and Mali 1987 (Scott 536).

The immediate success of newsreels such as “Movietone News”, which also began in 1927, cleared the way for the final step – “the talking picture”. However the changeover was costly and language barriers meant that for all countries, overseas markets shrank. The film industry in America was able to survive the Depression of the 1930s due to the successful introduction of sound to movies.

The general style of movies changed slowly in the 1930s with the major film studios beginning to resemble factories with the aim of making products – movies that could be shown in cinemas all over the world. The movies fell into definite categories called genres. Genres made sense economically, because a studio could use the same sets, costumes, locations, actors, directors, and even plots to chum out more westerns, musicals, crazy comedies, war movies, horror flicks, and romantic comedies. At first there were all star mammoth revues and musicals such as “Stand Up and Cheer’ in 1934, that were an attempt to divert the public from the problems of the Depression. One of the first gangster films “Little Caesar'” with Edward G. Robinson (depicted by the United States on a “Legends of Hollywood” stamp in 2000) was one of the genre which were marked by their timeliness, racy dialogue and naturalistic acting. The Western hecame popular and comedians such as Laurel and Hardy and Charles Chaplin made a the successful transition to movies.

The biggest box office attraction of all, for the middle period of the thirties, was the child star Shirley Temple, a star of a long sequence of successful films. As an adult, Shirley Temple Black achieved a distinguished career in diplomacy including service as a U.S. Ambassador to Ghana. A set of 10 stamps and 2 miniture sheets was issued by Ghana, March 1st, 1999, depicting scenes from the film “Curly Top”. One of the stamps from the miniature sheet (Scott 2104) is illustrated in Figure 3 below.

Technicolor was introduced in the 1930s and “Gone With The Wind”, one of the first colour epics and a classic film of all time. was released in 1939. This romantic epic about be South during the Civil War, starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh who were depicted on United States 1990 (Scott 2445). The stamp was one of set of four (Scott 2445 -2448) featured below in Figure 4. The other three stamps featured respectively, Judy Garland – The Wizard of Oz”, Carry Cooper – “Beau Geste” and John Wayne – “Stage Coach”. Vivien Leigh was also depicted on one of a set of four stamps issued by Great Britain in 1995 (Scott 1123).

1946 was the peak year for American audience attendance with 90 million admissions per week across the year. However, television – cinema’s greatest competitor, had been introduced and this would force the break-up of the old studio system over the next few decades.

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby with their series of “Road” pictures were enormously popular in the forties and fifties and boosted the profits of Paramount studios. Both stars are depicted on the reverse of a Great Britian (Scotland) aerogamme, Michel L.F.72 illustrated in Figure 5 below.

The fifties was the decade of the pneumatic blondes – Jane Mansfield, Diana Dors, Kim Novak and perhaps the most famous of them all Marilyn Monroe, who was depicted by Gibraltar on a set of four stamps issued in November 1995 (Scott 697) and United States, 1995 (Scott 2967) featured below in Figure 6.

Among the famous directors of the 1950s and 1960s were Alfred Hitchcock who directed “Psycho” in 1960. and who is depicted on the stamps of United States 1998 (Scott 2507) and Great Britain 1995 (Scott 1123).

Space does not allow me to enlarge on films post 1970 or to bring in the foreign film industry, although many countries have featured their films and film stars on philatelic items, especially in 1995, the “Century of Cinema” year.

There are many famous movie stars, directors and studios listed in the American Topical Association 6 page check list, 1st Nov. 1992, (Courtesy of Jo Bleakley). My main research work was The Movie Book by Don Shiach, ISBN No 1-873762-15-1.